Google's Advertising Algorithms Guilty of Racial Profiling?

"Every job candidate lives in fear that a Google search could reveal incriminating indiscretions from a distant past. But a new study examining racial bias in the wording of online ads suggests that Google's advertising algorithms may be unfairly associating some individuals with wrongdoing they didn’t commit," reports Huffington Post. "After learning that a Google search for her own name surfaced an ad for a background check service hinting that she’d been arrested, Harvard University professor Latanya Sweeney set out to investigate whether race shaped online ad results. She searched over 2,000 'racially associated names' to determine if names 'previously identified by others as being assigned at birth to more black or white babies' turned up ad results that indicated a criminal record. Specifically, she focused on ads purchased by companies that provide background checks used by employers." Read more.